Stephen Malpezzi

HOFINET - University of Wisconsin Portal Main Page on Urban Indicators

Welcome to the HOFINET/Graaskamp Center's Portal's page on Housing and Urban Development Indicators.

The guiding philosophy we adopt is well encapsulated by a famous quote from Lord Kelvin: “Knowledge that is not quantifiable is of a meager and uninteresting kind.”

But another, slightly less well known quote, should also be kept firmly in mind: “Any figure that looks interesting is probably wrong.” (Sir Claus Moser, Presidential Address to the Royal Statistical Society).

In due course, this page will be your point of entry to several related pages. This "first edition" begins with a few pages, including an overview of an important international effort.

Housing and Urban Development Indicators
Circa 1990, an international group of researchers on housing and urban development undertook to develop a set of comparable indicators on urban development across countries. Early efforts focused on housing and housing finance; these were later expanded to include other aspects of urban development. Read more.

Resources for the Study of Housing Markets in Developing and Emerging Markets
Recently I've posted several papers and other resources for students and researchers interested in the economic analysis of housing markets. Read more.